Chapter 536 - 1 Obtained the Steal Skill

There’s a boy running as fast as he can down a crowded street, panting for breath.

He looks to be in his mid-170cm height range and is on the skinny side. His clothes are tattered like rags, and his face is covered in grime as if he hasn’t washed in days.

Anyone could guess he lives in the slums. The boy loses control of his speed and bumps into a well-dressed man.

The man’s height easily exceeds 180cm, and he’s massively built, so he doesn’t budge an inch from the collision with the boy. But feeling unpleasant is inevitable.

"Hey, you little shit, can’t you watch where you’re going?"

"I’m sorry."

He approached the boy intending to give him a good scolding, but as it was a very urgent matter, he apologized and ran away as if fleeing, so he thought he stepped in shit and didn’t bother to catch him.

At that moment, he felt something strange and rummaged through his pockets, realizing that his wad of cash had disappeared.

"Ah, what the? My money’s gone? Ugh!! Hey!!"

By the time he realized he’d been robbed, the pickpocket had already vanished into the crowd.

"Looks like I hit a jackpot today?"

There was a boy who was happy that he had done well again today without any problems. He had been stealing since he was young, and it suited him quite well.

Even though he was quite old, he couldn’t think of doing anything else and continued to repeat the same thing.

When desperate situations arose, he had accidentally killed people, but he didn’t feel much guilt.

As always, after pickpocketing, he was counting money in the dirty and filthy slums when that day came.

[You have Awakened.]

[You have acquired the Trait: Brute Strength (E).]

[You have acquired the Skill: Appraisal (E).]

[You have acquired the Skill: Plunder (E).]

In this mysterious world where everyone Awakens upon reaching the adult age of 20, it is common sense. Among them, the boy obtains a very unique Skill.

"I’ve heard of the Appraisal Skill, but Plunder...? I’ve never heard of anything like that."

The boy comes from the slums and doesn’t have many acquaintances as an orphan, but because many people such as homeless people, livelihood thieves, beggars, and failures come to the slums for various reasons, he has heard various stories.

So, even before Awakening, he roughly knew what Traits and Skills existed.

[Status Window]

Name: Terry

Race: Human

Age: 20 years old

Occupation: None

Trait: Brute Strength (E)

Skills: Appraisal (E), Plunder (E)

Status: None

Title: None

[Appraisal: Allows you to view the Status Window of a living being. The amount of information you can see increases by 1 for each grade increase.]

[Plunder: Allows you to steal one Trait and one Skill from a killed opponent. You can steal a total of 5 Traits and Skills.]

"Brute Strength Trait is E-Rank, that’s the worst."

It is known that ranks range from the lowest rank, E-Rank, to the highest rank, SS-Rank. In other words, the Trait he Awakened with is the worst.

Traits and Skills are generally determined by luck, but it is said that if you are born with excellence or train in a specific field before Awakening, you have a fairly high probability of obtaining a high rank.

If you train in swordsmanship, you are more likely to obtain a Swordsmanship Trait, and if you have mainly done strength-related work, you are more likely to obtain a Brute Strength Trait at a high rank.

Terry, an orphan from the slums, had only been pickpocketing, so he had no natural talent.

But what’s surprising is that he obtained the Brute Strength Trait instead of the Agility Trait.

I guess it really is luck. But the Appraisal Skill is something to be hopeful for.

This Skill is quite famous, and it is said that Nobles and countries hire people with this Skill for a lot of money because they can check the Status Window of the other person. He first read the detailed explanation of the Skill to see what kind of ability it was.

[Plunder: After designating a target, if you kill the opponent, you can steal one Trait and one Skill.

The target can be changed once every 24 hours.

If you succeed in defeating the target, you can use the target selection again.

You can steal a total of 5 Skills and Traits.

You can steal higher Traits as the rank increases.]

He had never used it before, so he didn’t really know what it meant yet, but he knew that it was a very dangerous Skill that he couldn’t carelessly reveal to others.

[Select the type of Appraisal. Please select one of the following: ’Name, Race, Age, Gender, Occupation, Trait, Skill, Status, Title’]

Terry considered the priorities of what was important and decided that the most important things were Traits and Skills.

"Then let’s start with Traits."

He heard that Traits must have at least one, but Skills may not exist. To be precise, unless they are mages, they usually don’t have Skills.

[Appraisal: Allows you to check the Status Window of a living being.

The types you can additionally see increase by 1 for each rank increase.]

A very simple explanation compared to the Plunder Skill. To test it out, he went out to the main street and used the Appraisal Skill while looking at the people passing by, and felt a strange feeling of something leaving his body.

"Was that Mana that just left..."

Mana is always floating in the air, and everyone’s body has a little Mana. But he had never felt it before, so he felt a little strange.

Now he had to test the Plunder Skill, but it was too conspicuous, and he couldn’t just kill people for no reason. He decides to hunt monsters.

It was his first time hunting, but he knew that even ordinary people who hadn’t Awakened could somehow hunt E-Rank monsters, so he moved his body.

First, he headed to the weapon shop. When he entered in shabby clothes, the weapon shop owner waved his hand as if trying to chase Terry away, but when he showed the money pouch, he quickly changed his attitude and changed his facial expression, a skilled merchant.

But he didn’t have much money, so he only bought a cheap longsword.

He arrived at a place called the beginner hunting ground. There are only E-Rank monsters, so it’s not a big threat unless something major happens.

Wearing tattered clothes and holding only a cheap sword, he felt ridicule and contempt even among the beginners.

It was something that happened often, so he didn’t pay much attention and went forward, entering the beginning of the forest and swinging his sword.

He had swung a small dagger a few times, but this was his first time with such a large longsword, so he wasn’t used to it, and it was heavier than he thought, making it quite uncomfortable to use.

Still, he thought he had gotten a little feel for it and decided to go a little deeper.

There, there was a man who looked particularly weak, and when he looked at his Status Window, it was miserable.

[Status Window]

Trait: Swordsmanship (E)

[Swordsmanship: All abilities increase when using a sword.]

He only has one Brute Strength (E) Trait himself, but he can increase 5 Traits and Skills due to the Plunder Skill. His Skills are not visible, but there is a high possibility that he doesn’t have any.

Usually, it is rare to obtain Skills unless you are a mage. It is almost impossible for ordinary people to increase their Traits and Skills, so the difference is clear.

Even with such a cheap Trait, it will be difficult to reach a high level even if he tries his whole life.

Of course, there are occasionally people who have risen to a higher rank compared to cheap Traits and Skills.

But the guy in front of him had terrible swordsmanship skills and didn’t look physically outstanding either. He should have done a normal job instead of being an adventurer.

He was so curious that he kept staring at him, and the man, who had finished hunting, noticed Terry’s gaze and spoke to him.

"Is this your first time here?"

"Ah.. yes."

"I thought so from your reaction. I’ve been here for a while, so ask me if you have any questions."

"Thank you. Do you know what the weakest monster is?"

The man who spoke to Terry introduced himself as Thomas. He wore better equipment than Terry, but he looked weaker compared to others.

Thomas kindly explained Terry’s question, who was dressed like a beggar, and even told him the characteristics and location of the monsters.

"Letmen are a little stronger than Goblins, but Goblins always travel with at least 2 or more, so you have to be more careful."

"Yes, thank you."

He took his words to heart and headed to the area with many slimes, which were said to be the weakest.

But this is a forest of monsters where you never know what will happen, and things don’t always go as you want.

The first thing he found was a Kobold, a monster that walks on two legs like a human, is about 120cm tall, and has the face of a dog.

[Status Window]

Trait: Agility (E)

At first, he hesitated about what to do, but he decided that it was worth fighting because he only had one Agility (E) Trait, so he soon calmed his mind and prepared for a surprise attack.

It was his first time hunting a monster, so he was a little nervous, but he had already killed people. He should be able to win somehow.

[Kobold has been set as the Plunder target.]

Fortunately, Terry was the first to discover it, so he was going to sneak up behind the Kobold and surprise attack it, but was he too clumsy?

The Kobold quickly identified Terry’s location and took a defensive stance. But it didn’t rush to attack first.

"Then I’ll go first. Iyahhhh!"

He approached the monster’s close range as much as possible and tried to cut its neck diagonally, but he couldn’t grasp the range well, so the sword didn’t reach.

After failing the attack, many gaps were created, and the Kobold quickly rushed to bite his neck!

The speed was quite fast, so he didn’t think he could block it and gave up his other arm.

A tremendous pain rushed to his left arm. He was pushed back by the momentum, and the Kobold climbed on top of him, but fortunately, he was holding the longsword in his right hand until the end, so he stabbed the Kobold’s side that was biting his arm and cut off its breath.

Blood was dripping from the bitten arm, and the skin was slightly torn.

"Huk,,, huk,, damn it, is this the weakest monster? It hurts like hell"

[Successfully eliminated the target. Choose a Trait and Skill.]

Even if he had to choose, he only had the Agility Trait. His arm was sore, but he felt a little better after seeing that the Agility Trait had been added.

[Agility: Increases movement speed and attack speed.]

He dug out the magic stone inside the Kobold’s heart with the dagger he usually carried around. The color was a cloudy purple, so it didn’t look very valuable, but he planned to collect magic stones from every monster he caught because he could make money if he collected several.

After catching his breath, the excitement from the battle subsided, and he ran at full speed to see how effective the Agility Trait was.

It certainly seemed a little faster, but he didn’t feel a big difference. Ignoring his aching arm, he headed to the place with slimes this time.

The first thing he found was a slime with the Regeneration Trait, a green jelly-like monster with a round shape. You need to aim for the core in the middle to subdue it easily. The guy does a body slam.

Even if the attack comes, it’s slow, and it only hurts a little even if you get hit, so it’s definitely the weakest among the E-Rank monsters.

But if you only hit the outside, it will regenerate again due to the slime’s characteristics, so you need to deal with it quickly. He didn’t want to waste stamina, so he quickly killed it by stabbing the core.

[Acquired Regeneration (E).]

[Regeneration: Wounds and stamina recover quickly.]

"I should hunt here for the time being."

The sword was not yet familiar, so it was suitable as a practice partner. As he was hunting a few of them, he found a slime with the Fortitude Trait. He thought that monsters of the same type had the same Traits, but that wasn’t the case.

[Fortitude: Increases mental strength. Increases magic resistance.]

He didn’t particularly like the Fortitude Trait, but he didn’t care much because it seemed possible to overwrite the Plundered Traits anyway.

[Status Window]

Name: Terry

Race: Human

Age: 20 years old

Occupation: None

Trait: Brute Strength (E)

Skills: Appraisal (E), Plunder (E)

Status: None

Title: None

Plunder[1] Trait: Agility (E)

Plunder[2] Trait: Regeneration (E)

Plunder[3] Trait: Fortitude (E)

’Hmm, should I stop here for today? My whole body feels sore from swinging the sword for the first time.’

He felt like he would get muscle pain in his legs when he ran at full speed, and if that happened, his calves would inevitably cramp the next day. He was feeling that way in his arm too, so he thought he shouldn’t overdo it and went back.